Milan’s Safety Problem: How Ruthless Thieves Ruined Our Trip

It was supposed to be yet another epic road trip in Europe like we love.

After many months without any travel, we were in desperate need of some holidays by October after coming back from our world trip that ended with an epic backpacking tour in Jordan and a quiet summer back home.

The plan was to drive down to Florence and explore the gorgeous Tuscany region for a few weeks.

Yes, that was the plan.

First stop: no trouble in Como

We started in Sebi's home Vorarlberg, in Austria, and crossed Liechtenstein and Switzerland to enter Italy through Lombardia.

It was raining. But that didn't matter, did it?

Only, it did a little as we specifically took the scenic (but much longer) route via the Passo dello Spluga at 2117 m above sea level to admire the incredible views over the Lago Spluga.

But because of heavy rain clouds and the altitude, there was no view.

Oh well, we'll see it on the way back then.

During the drive, we chose a little B&B called In Riva Al Lago and arrived in Como, a cute little Italian town by a very famous (much thanks to George Clooney having his mansion there) lake.

We didn't want to spend too much time here as this was another stop planned for the way home. Now, it was just for the night, and we only strolled a bit through the centre, had some lovely Italian pasta and went back to bed quite early.

Next stop: Milan

The next morning, we got up quite early and, without breakfast because we were in a hurry, we left for Milan.

Upon arriving here, I asked Sebi, "What about Milan's safety? Did we research that?"

At the same time I thought: "My sister visited Milan with our grandparents; I don't recall them having any safety issues".

We had already heard that Milan had some beautiful corners but that it wasn't worth staying that long.

So we didn't book anything for the night and carefully chose a guarded parking garage a bit out of the tourist centre, as we knew that we would have to leave all of our things inside the car.

That car park looked legit and had the advantage of having a direct connection to the ATM, Milan's metro, perfect for getting to the city centre in minutes.

Did we misjudge Milan's safety?

We had a lot of luggage in the car, yes. There were many valuable things, too, because we came straight from Sebi's home, where we managed to get some work done before officially starting our holiday. This meant: we had computers in there as well.

But we're generally not careless. Once we found a nice parking spot on the second floor of a car park in Milan, we hid everything in the trunk.

A trunk with an additional separation, so nobody can see anything when looking inside the car.

No valuables were in sight.

Plus, we picked a spot with a camera pointing straight at our car.

So no, we weren't reckless.

Or so we thought.

Visiting Milan's highlights: the Duomo and the Galleria

The Duomo di Milano

Milan's impressive landmark, the Duomo, took nearly six centuries to be completed (construction started in 1386).

It didn't take that long to visit it, but Italy's largest cathedral (not counting the St Peter's basilica in Vatican City) is worth a detour.

Walking on the cathedral's roofs is in itself a highlight. But being surrounded by dozens of sharp, gothic pinnacles makes this a unique experience.

The interior is pretty cool, too, but the roofs are the absolute best part.

But if you're an archaeologist like I am or just an archaeology-enthusiast, the crypt underneath the cathedral is worth checking out too. There are medieval tombs and baptismal fonts as well as ancient walls to admire.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

After having taken hundreds of pictures, Sebi and I went down to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan's second major landmark.

The shops inside of this huge shopping gallery - notably the oldest one in Italy! - were not necessarily our type. But it is still delightful to walk up and down the gallery underneath the glorious glass domes and marvel at the insane prices in the shop windows.

Also, it had just started to rain (again) so having another roof to shelter underneath was most welcome.

We walked all the way through to the other side where we could have checked out another symbol of Milan, the La Scala opera house.

But a look on our watches (or rather phones) and we decided against it, as we still had a 3-hour drive to get to our first real stop of this Tuscany trip, Lucca.

The accommodation at Il Tiglio was already booked, and we were really looking forward to it.

Some fresh burrata to refuel before the drive

On the way back to the car park, we passed this lovely-looking restaurant in the Via Dogana with one of my favourite Italian dishes on the menu: fresh homemade trofie pasta with a simple tomato-basil sauce and - the main ingredient - fresh burrata.

It's one of the dishes we frequently make at home because it's so simple, easy, yet absolutely delicious if you find the right burrata.

The creamy heart of the mozzarella ball makes the whole dish.

Getting ready to reach Lucca, to start our Tuscany trip properly

But someone had other plans.

We were still busy talking about what our plans were for the next few days and how much we were looking forward to it upon entering the car park Parcheggio ATM Lampugnano and paying for our ticket.

And then my heart dropped.

My back window was seemingly down, and my first reaction was: "Drat! Did I really leave the window open??"

Then I saw the black sherds on the floor next to the car, and I knew: someone broke into it.

Bloody hell!

They literally took everything we had in our car: our luggage with all of our clothes, our (well-hidden) computers, my camera (inside a camera bag that didn't look like one), going as far as taking our camping stuff and climbing equipment.

Everything was in the trunk. Nothing was visible from outside. Nothing!

Plus: my car might be an SUV, but it's a quite cheap Mitsubishi that clearly looks old and not very well taken care of (I use it on archaeological digs, after all). Nothing shiny, nothing indicating rich owners or a trunk full of valuables.

Hoping for some help

Knowing that there were three guards downstairs, that's where we headed first.

Their reaction: quickly pointing to a sign that said the car park declines all responsibility for stolen items. We hadn't even explained what had happened yet!

Of course, they didn't speak any English. Or at least, that's what they claimed because they seemed to understand perfectly well once I started getting angry a bit later after they let us know that the "cameras no funzionare". No funzionare, come off it!

They just scribbled an address on a piece of paper, saying: "Polizia" over and over again.

It smelled fishy, so I called the closest police station I could find - weirdly enough, that wasn't the address they had written on the piece of paper.

No help whatsoever

The policeman on the other side of the line spoke English - what a relief! - but when I asked if they could come down to take pictures and our statement, etc. (I mean, that's what they usually do in Belgium when a car has been broken into), they said they couldn't come to the car park. That this was not the way, it worked in Milan.

They gave us another address of a police station and told us we should bring our car there.

So we drove to that station with a broken rear window and slightly traumatised, knowing that some stranger's hands had just touched everything.

We had to wait for a while at the station before they brought an officer who understood English. I made a statement, and that was the end of it.

He didn't even bother to come outside to check the car or take pictures.

And he only wrote down my phone number after I explicitly asked if they could check the surveillance camera recordings from the car park.

He let us go, saying that they would call if they heard anything.

But from how everything went down, we already knew that it was a lost cause. They wouldn't care to check out anything in that car park, and we would never hear from any of them again.

Disgusted by Milan's non-existent safety

I was so pissed, particularly at the so-called "guards" of Parcheggio ATM Lampugnano that I wanted to give them a bad review on Google.

And when I opened Google and clicked on the reviews, it suddenly became very clear.

The only positive reviews came from Italian "local guides". Usually five stars, without any comment.

And then there were dozens of reviews in English, German, French, etc. All with one star, all with a similar story: they had parked their car here for a few hours and once they came back, windows were smashed and everything was stolen.

Every bad review said that the guards didn't hear or see anything (some of these cars had very loud alarms, and still, the guards were seemingly deaf) and claimed the cameras weren't working that day.

Targeting foreign cars

All these bad reviews had in common that they came from tourists travelling with their own (foreign, non-Italian) car.

And that's why they were targeted.

All of them had luggage in the car, but those were not visible from the outside.

All of them suspect the same stitch-up: the guards watch who drives in. They see a foreign licence tag and probably monitor, through the "non-working" cameras, if people put things in the trunk. Something all of us have done at some point as you usually just take what you need and leave the rest of the luggage when on a stop-over.

Then they call their people and point them to the innocent tourist's car.

A loud clatter from smashing in one window, possibly a car alarm that gets ignored, and a quick "take-all-there-is-and-leave".

How do I know they were quick? They didn't even bother to check the contents of our bags: they took my totally empty handbag. There was literally nothing inside.

Holidays over - home we go

There was no use in continuing our trip.

Heck, we didn't even have underwear anymore. Sure, we could have bought some. But buying clothes for a three weeks trip just isn't fun. We probably would have done that at a far-away destination like French Polynesia or Costa Rica

But we were travelling by car anyway and only about four hours from Innsbruck, where Sebi's sister lives.

So we tried to find a Carglass to get a makeshift rear window and decided to drive home to Austria.

It sucked. But it could have been worse.

We were gutted, pissed, and disappointed but actually also a bit relieved (after the initial shock) that nothing worse happened.

Yes, they took things I can't possibly replace, like an external disk with a backup of the last photos I took. Or selected (cheap) jewellery I bought in Cusco and on Maupiti or that my Mom and friends gifted to me.

And in total, we calculated that it would cost us about 10.000 € just to replace everything they stole (while they, on the other hand, would make a petty 1000 € with what was sellable).

But still, it's only material damage.

We felt way worse after being mugged at gunpoint in Costa Rica. Cause that was the first time we feared for our lives for both of us.

In this case, we learned from our mistake and we will plan our road trips accordingly from now on. We were always careful travellers but we will take some extra precautions in the future.

And I hope to warn others by sharing this story to really look into Milan's safety before visiting the city. Don't forget to read the reviews on car parks. It's something we never did before but will do systematically now.

One day, we might even go back to Milan. But we also might just skip it on the way to Tuscany. Italy still owes us that trip!

I hope this post didn't disgust you too much and you still somehow enjoyed reading it.

Please feel free to comment, pin and especially share this post for others to see and to be warned!

As ever

xx

Cyn

Before leaving, check out some other road trips we did in Europe that did go very well:

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